French rail strike slowly runs out of steam

Published: 20 Jun 2014 08:59 GMT+02:00

A French rail strike that has caused travel havoc across the country continued on Friday but reports suggested most strikers had returned to work and services were getting back to normal, although there was still disruption in certain parts of the country.

Services on France’s rail network was slowly getting back to normal on Friday as a ten day nationwide rail strike looked like it was on its last legs.

Rail operators SNCF reported that on average around eight out of ten trains were running.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls once again urged rail workers back to work saying he did not understand why they were on strike.

"Since the beginning I haven't understood the reasons for this strike and I am convinced the French public have not understood either," Valls said.

According to SNCF chief Guillaume Pépy 90 percent of rail workers were at work on Friday.

The participation of rail workers in the long-running strike – that is said to have cost around €160 million – has been decreasing day by day from 28 percent on the first day to around ten percent on Thursday.

The controversial reform that prompted two unions to call for a walk-out went through parliament this week. It plans to merge train operators SNCF with RFF which is in charge of infrastructure, in order to streamline the system and ameliorate the €44 billion debt problem.

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